Collaborative Water Solutions

“Collaborative Water Solutions” – CWS – is a process whereby small communities learn about options, determine, implement, then manage their own locally relevant, affordable, equitable, ecologically sustainable water and wastewater decisions.

This is a story about a real community….. facing the same trainwreck barreling down the track

864 homes. 250 are mobile homes. 89% are occupied.

Poverty rate is consistently 22%

238 households have at least one resident over 65

200 residents have left since 2000

The cost of the proposed conventional wastewater collection and lagoon ‘solution’ exceeded $3.1m

Even with a 75% grant, the ‘solution’ was simply unaffordable

Township officials only hold office hours on 2 afternoons.

Their average age is 60.

Most only have a High School Diploma.

With no local expertise, impossible quoted costs, and regulators breathing down their necks, this community needs help.

All across this country, communities just like this face the same daunting challenges when having to make new construction, or repair, water and wastewater systems decisions. They have few to no internal skills for even beginning the decision making process. Is it any surprise they then abdicate those decisions to the experts,engineering firms who then propose traditional, often unaffordable, solutions? The inevitable result is either total inaction or entrenched community strife with elected officials facing both political, and personal, pressure.

Yet the stakes have never been higher.

Small communities are struggling to preserve their population, diversity, economic basis and unique character. If your community is facing similar challenges, you have a new option. You don’t need to choose between business-as-usual, big ticket, Big Pipe sewer or kicking the can down the road for your kids to deal with. A number of tools have been developed specifically to help smaller communities such as yours to make their own decisions.

CWS offers that third option. ….. to help you decide what YOU need and how to implement it.Creative Water Solutions [CWS] is a program designed to help challenged communities make their own water and waste water decisions and implement them – decisions that are locally relevant, equitable and ecologically sustainable. CWS will help you:

By providing unique, valuable, unbiased perspectives on the market

Navigate alternatives

Avoid potential “land mines”

By providing on-going advice

Quantify financial value

Find ways to turn infrastructure investment into community opportunity.

Too many communities across the country have allowed themselves to get stuck in mega-project investments that drive high debt levels and ever increasing rates. This has become a booming business for collections agencies, and a fundamental breach of trust between the residents and local government. It is possible to find ‘right-sized‘ water solutions if your community members are involved in the dialogue to research viable water and waste water infrastructure alternatives for themselves. Each individual will then own their piece of the decision making process and will be more likely to support its outcomes. We will help you to foster community consensus, community capacity and equity. Please contact usso we can explore, together, how you can turn your community water issues into opportunities for economic AND environmental growth. Google+